| Time-Gate | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | John Hollis |
| Publisher(s) | Quicksilva |
| Platform(s) | ZX Spectrum |
| Release | 1982 [1] |
| Genre(s) | Action |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Time-Gate (also known as Timegate, 4D Time-Gate or 4D Defender) is a ZX Spectrum game from Quicksilva, and one of the first 3D combat games. The name is derived from its treatment of time as a dimension, in which one could travel (albeit backwards only). The first press launch in the UK games industry was for this title. [2]
Time-Gate had one embarking on a perilous mission to repel the Squarm invaders who have conquered Earth, by fighting through hordes of same, thus finding and locating the time-gates (hence the name) and using the gates to travel back through time to an earlier era, where one fought through more Squarm to find another gate. Eventually, if one hadn't been killed by the enemy, one got back to the year before the Squarm invaded, located their home planet, and locked onto it with one's meson RAM (48K), thereby destroying it and retroactively preventing its inhabitants from ever having invaded in the first place.
Time-Gate, due to its intense use of machine-code-driven sound, placed more stress on the Spectrum's sound capabilities than previous games, [3] and thereby inadvertently revealed a design flaw in early machines, whereby the Time-Gate sound effects would crash those machines. This resulted in some people buying the game to stress-test their Spectrums.
The ZX Spectrum is an 8-bit home computer developed and marketed by Sinclair Research. Considered one of the most influential computers ever made, it is also one of the best-selling British computers ever, with over five million units sold. It was released in the United Kingdom on 23 April 1982, and around the world in the following years, most notably in Europe, the United States, and Eastern Bloc countries.
Jeff Minter is an English video game designer and programmer who often goes by the name Yak. He is the founder of software house Llamasoft and has created dozens of games during his career, which began in 1981 with games for the ZX80. Minter's games are shoot 'em ups which contain titular or in-game references demonstrating his fondness of ruminants. Many of his programs also feature something of a psychedelic element, as in some of the earliest "light synthesizer" programs including Trip-a-Tron.
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Jetpac is a shooter video game developed and published by Ultimate Play the Game and released for the ZX Spectrum and VIC-20 in 1983 and the BBC Micro in 1984. It is the first game to be released by Ultimate Play the Game, the company which later became Rare. The game follows Jetman as he must rebuild his rocket in order to explore different planets, while simultaneously defending against hostile aliens. It was written by Ultimate co-founder Chris Stamper with graphics designed by his brother, Tim Stamper. Reviewers praised Jetpac's presentation and gameplay, and it won "Game of the Year" at the Golden Joystick Awards in 1983.
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3D Monster Maze is a survival horror video game developed from an idea by J.K. Greye and programmed by Malcolm Evans and released in 1981 for the ZX81 with the 16 KB memory expansion. The game was initially released by J. K. Greye Software in December 1981 and re-released in 1982 by Evans' own startup, New Generation Software. Rendered using low-resolution character block "graphics", it was one of the first 3D games for a home computer, and one of the first games incorporating typical elements of the genre that would later be termed survival horror.
The Horace video game series was created in the 1980s by William Tang for Beam Software. The series comprised Hungry Horace, Horace Goes Skiing and Horace and the Spiders.
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Bug-Byte Software Ltd. was a video game company founded in 1980 in Liverpool, initially producing software for the Acorn Atom and ZX80. Bug-Byte's first hit was Don Priestley's Mazogs which was one of the most successful titles for the ZX81. In 1983, it published Manic Miner, considered to be one of the most influential platform games of all time. The company went into liquidation in 1985 but their name and logo were purchased by Argus Press PLC for use as a budget software label.
Quicksilva was a British games software publisher active during the early 1980s.
Zombie Zombie is a ZX Spectrum computer game developed by Spaceman Ltd, published in 1984 by Quicksilva. It is a development of Spaceman's previous Ant Attack, and uses an updated "Softsolid 3D" isometric graphics engine.
The ZX Spectrum's software library was very diverse. While the majority of the software produced for the system was video games, others included programming language implementations, Sinclair BASIC extensions, databases, word processors, spread sheets, drawing and painting tools, and 3D modelling tools.
SoftAid is a software compilation, released by Quicksilva in March 1985 to support the Famine Relief in Ethiopia. The software was released on cassette for the ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64 home computers. Versions were also planned for the Amstrad CPC and BBC Micro but Rod Cousens, Quicksilva's managing director, was unable to secure enough games from publishers.
The United Kingdom has the largest video game sector in Europe. By revenue, the UK had the second-largest video game market in Europe in 2022 after Germany, and the sixth-largest globally. By sales, it is Europe's largest market, having overtaken Germany in 2022. The UK video game market was worth £7.16 billion in 2021, a 2% increase over the previous year.
Mined-Out is a maze video game created by Ian Andrew originally for the ZX Spectrum home computer in 1983. The objective is to carefully navigate a series of grid-shaped minefields by moving from the bottom to the top of the screen. The number of invisible mines in spaces adjacent to the player's current position is shown but not their precise location, requiring deduction to advance past them and avoid getting blown up. Additional challenges are introduced in later stages.
Automonopoli, also known as Go to Jail, is an unauthorised computer version of the boardgame Monopoly, released in June 1983 by Automata UK for the ZX Spectrum. Although other two-player Monopoly computer programs already existed, the developer advertised that their Automonopoli was the first with an artificial intelligence strong enough to compete against and defeat human players.
The Thompson Twins Adventure is a 1984 graphic adventure game that was distributed by Computer and Video Games magazine as a promotional 7" flexi disc "freebie" along with its October 1984 issue. The game is based on the Thompson Twins' single "Doctor! Doctor!", and features the Thompson Twins band members as the protagonists. The unusual storage format of the game showcases an experimental technique pioneered by the London-based Flexi Records label, and places the game alongside a small handful of other games distributed on grooved disks. This format never became established and The Thompson Twins Adventure is today valued more for its nostalgic and artifactual value than for its ludological aspects which have been uniformly panned by critics.
Yabba Dabba Doo! is a 1986 video game developed by British studio Taskset and published by Quicksilva for the Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64 (C64), and ZX Spectrum. It is based on the television series The Flintstones and is the first Flintstones video game.
Mevlüt Dinç, better known as Mev Dinc, is a Turkish-British video game designer. Born and raised in Turkey, he moved to England in 1979 while finishing his studies, intending to pursue a master's degree there. Unable to pay the high tuition fees for international students, Dinc worked in a cable factory in Southampton, where a colleague introduced him to video games and got him a ZX Spectrum when it was released in 1982. Dinc taught himself to program via magazines and began working in the video game industry in 1983, starting with assisting on the Commodore 64 conversion of Ant Attack, released in 1984. After his first original game, Gerry the Germ Goes Body Poppin', in 1985, he worked with Electric Dreams Software on another original game, Prodigy, the Amstrad CPC port of Enduro Racer, and various tie-ins with films and TV series.
